by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
“Sardar ji, welcome. After a long time a Sikh has visited this mausoleum. Here Baba Nanak had spent some time,” a mystic, dressed in an all-black attire stated at the shrine of Hazrat Shah Shams Tabrez in Multan. Paying my respects at the inner sanctum, as I viewed...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
While we were inside Baba Farid’s shrine, a man asked, “Sardar ji, have you visited Nanak Tibba, the place where Baba Nanak had stayed to compile the verses of Baba Farid?” Guru Nanak had stayed with Baba Ibrahim Farid Sani at Nanak Tibba village to collate the verses...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
The spirit of pluralism, represented by Baba Nanak’s simple words, I witnessed in practice at the Dera Sahib, Pakistan I thereafter proceeded to the sanctum sanctorum to join a sparse congregation and was ecstatic to see shabads (hymns) being sung by a group...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
Close to the Radcliffe line in Pakistan —– Feeling you grasp for breath, I heard Kabir resonate in your collapsing walls, WEEP NOT AT DEATH, NOTHING IS PERMANENT. WHATEVER CREATED, SHALL PERISH. For seven decades, we the vestiges have beckoned the...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
Sikh fresco art on the walls of dying monuments across Pakistan speak volumes about the past glory of the region; a highly evolved and respectful society, where women were no less than men! A woman leads a hunt in this 19th century fresco on a dilapidated gurdwara...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
Walking the streets of Sahiwal (Pakistan), I spotted a domed building, distinctively looking like a gurdwara but adorned with a copper, triangular pennant, indicating it would be a Hindu temple. “Hindu Satsang Sabha” was written on its dome in Hindi but at its...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
In the outskirts of the city of Mansehra in Pakistan, I stopped at the grave of Isher Singh, who having adopted Islam in the partition of 1947, is now buried here as Gulam Sarwar. Why Isher Singh stayed back and converted, by will or force, is not of concern to me....
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At Qila Jiwan Singh (Pakistan), a village named after a Sikh; I looked towards Sarai Amanat Khan (India), a village named after a Muslim. Being served tea at Qila Jiwan Singh by Rafaqat Ali, whose parents had moved from Sarai Amanat Khan in the partition of 1947; it...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At the Indo-Pak border, standing at Ganda Singh Wala (Pakistan), a village named after a Sikh; I looked towards Hussain Wala (India), a village named after a Muslim. Twenty kilometers behind me was Kasur in Pakistan, the town of Baba Bullhe Shah and ahead of me was...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At the historic Second Anglo Sikh War Memorial in Chillianwala (Pakistan), a conversation with Mahmud Khan. Indian history textbooks refrain to mention the accounts of Sikh history which occurred on the soil of Pakistan, and these chapters remain suppressed in...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At the Khyber Gate, opposite Jamrud Fort, as I read the seven large plaques affixed on the Khyber Memorial, on which are inscribed detailed history of the region, from the ‘ancient times’ to the ‘present’, it was evident that History is nothing else but ‘HIS STORY’....
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
In Pakistan at lunch with Malik Ikhtiar Sahab and the villagers of Narali, there was only respect and love for each other. I was reminded of Baba Bullhe Shah, I am not a Hindu, nor a Muslim. I have forsaken pride and become unsullied. I am not a Sunni, nor a Shia. I...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At Gujranwala in Pakistan, the young students looked dazed as I peeked into their classroom. Their startled expression revealed that they had never seen a Sikh. The hall in which they were being taught, was once a gurdwara of the Sikh community. Till 1947, it is here...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
As I flew over Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, on the right of the plane was Baltistan and on the left, Gilgit. The diversity that existed across these remote high altitude territories before the partition of India, is reflected in the book entitled, “Gilgit Rebellion – The...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At Skardu, in the region of Baltistan in Pakistan, having visited the remains of the abandoned and dilapidated gurdwara, I thereafter strolled through the market. As per the Jammu & Kashmir census of 1941, of the total population of 106,289 in Skardu, there were...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
At Islamabad Literature Festival, a member of the audience asked, “How do you feel travelling across Pakistan as an identifiable Sikh?” My reply was, “Bollywood Fakir!” Across Pakistan, at every nook and corner, people wish to interact, feed and more importantly, want...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
The web of roots represented in the word ‘Singh’ that every Sikh man would once proudly use as part of his name, may have lost its significance, primarily because the community’s relationship with the lands where they had once made a glorious history, was severed in...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
While travels across Pakistan in search of the Sikh legacy has been uplifting but also a highly emotional experience. A view of the Panja Sahib Gurdwara through the grills conveyed a feeling of being in a prison. Freedom wrenched! In 1849, the machinations of the...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
‘Ishq’ in its ultimate form means unfettered passion! For years, I had dreamt of being inside the forts across the turbulent North-Western region of Pakistan from where the Sikh Empire in the early 19th century had successfully plugged the Khyber Pass, putting to stop...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
In an interesting encounter with a Fakir, he smiled and said, “Climb the heights of depth!” For years, I was focused on scaling the ‘Heights of Height’, and am now attempting to climb the ‘Heights of Depth’. So during my return in 2017, I tried to search for the...
